The other day, I was sitting in a room in my house we call the “family room,” with my parents and brother. As I attempted to tell a story, I realized that nobody was listening to me. My mom was scrolling on Instagram, my dad was finishing up work on his laptop and my brother was using FaceTime. Needless to say, I felt left out. While technology, especially Netflix, is a great thing, overuse can keep us from forming lasting relationships.

No matter where one goes, people are always on their phones, whether they are shopping at the store, sitting in class or even driving a car. It seems as if we think that we can ignore our current situation, just pause life for a quick second, to check our Facebook News Feed or incoming messages. But can we?

We now live in a world “where disruptive communication is acceptable” and that instead of people frowning upon it, it is now “expected as part of the normal social activity,” according to the Conference on Information Systems Applied Research website. While ten years ago your friends may have felt insulted if you answered a call while hanging out, today, your friends might think you are rude if you do not pick up your phone. It is crazy how times have changed in just over ten years.

According to the Daily Mail website, researchers studied parents as they were out to eat with their kids, and found that one in three parents used their phones continuously throughout the meal and 73 percent used them at least once throughout the meal. Most of the children became restless and acted out to receive the attention they lacked from their parents. So, in turn, those children may follow the example set by their parents and may think it is acceptable to devote their attention to technology on a regular basis. This type of behavior can prevent these kids, along with their parents, from developing social behavior and strong relationships with other people.

Nokia conducted a survey to find out our least favorite phone behavior. The most disliked behavior ranked by 21.48% of people, which was playing music or videos without using headphones. Second, at 20.89%, are loud talkers and the use of phones at a movie theatre are ranked third at 17.49%. Only about 2.04% of people, however, feel aggravated by the constant scrolling through messages, and the use of cell phones to cheat angers about 1.55% of people.

While it is important that I watch Frozen in peace without being disturbed by someone texting during “Let it Go,” I am much more conscientious about having a full conversation with people and spending time with them without being constantly distracted by a new message or status update. It seems like people nowadays allow new technology to make their relationships with people more impersonal. People tend to ignore what is going on around them, causing them to live less in the moment. While my friends do not text and scroll the internet the entire time we hang out, others are not as lucky.

While technology is a great invention, we need to find the right balance and fully take in each experience we are given each day.